First Trip of 2010!

Have you ever had a swig of beer and then thought "this is good but it is missing something . . . hey, I know what it needs, a big dose of smoky bacon"? Probably not, right, because you're sane. Well there is a small city in Germany who makes it's name via this Rauchbier (smoke beer) and it tastes exactly like a side of smoky bacon was dropped into your dark beer. Bamberg, Germany is a small city in Northern Bavaria which is an Unesco World Heritage Site as it actually survived the war without being destroyed. It also has the Rathaus which is one of the most photographed locations in Germany.

We left early yesterday morning and arrived in Bamberg and began the tour/battle to not freeze. The Dom there is one of my favorite churches now. It might have had something to do with the Christmas decorations, but too bad. I love the big trees lit up with candles and the nativity scenes. Plus it was a nice understated, massive stone building. I know that seems like an oxymoron, but it isn't this time.

Later we went up the hill to the Kirche St. Michael which was a bit overstated inside, but was somewhat redeemed by it's Christmas decorations. Oh, but it had the most interesting ceiling I have ever seen. The ceiling had herbs and plants painted on it. Odd. Then we walked around to the back where there were views of the city and about 1000 empty champagne bottles and firework trash everywhere. Apparently the entire city went up there on New Year's Eve and each had a bottle of champagne, a box of fireworks, and no trash cans. Anyway, the walk down was fun as it was snowing the whole day we were there and the stair were covered in ice. I imagine we were very entertaining to watch although I didn't particularly enjoy envisioning myself sprawled out in the muddy ice. Don't worry we made it back in one piece.